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1. I understand the truth of it 2. The inefficiency bugs me I.e. I want to support the band, but feel like only a fraction of the money spent on merch goes to

• abap_rocky 7mo ago
  Yeah, also the fact that most venues take a cut of merch sales really dampens the idea that buying merch directly from artists is the best way to put money in their pocket. I even recall going to a show many years ago where the lead singer refused to sell his t-shirts at the venue and implored us all to meet him outside at their tour van for direct sales. I don't think he got invited back to perform there!
  • MidnightRider39 7mo ago
    Never heard about venues taking a cut off the merch - that’s fucked up… They already take (in almost all cases) 100% from drinks and bar sales. In my experience the ticket sales and merch go completely to the artist. Anything else I would consider a rip-off
    • longwave 7mo ago
      In larger UK venues this has been happening for some years now, there is a campaign against it: https://thefac.org/venuedirectory https://thefac.org/venuedirectory This has been followed up by similar action in the US as well: https://weareumaw.org/my-merch https://weareumaw.org/my-merch
    • tastyfreeze 7mo ago
      That is certainly the case with many venues in the US after the LiveNation/Ticketmaster merger. Independent venues are much more rare, due to the LiveNation monopoly, but make their own deals with talent that are reasonable to both parties. LiveNation operates so much of the venue spaces they can take whatever they want. Artists have been complaining to congress about it since the merger in 2010.
• MidnightRider39 7mo ago
  Just give them money directly without the merch. Or purchase their music, most (small) bands sell it directly as well.
  • dylan604 7mo ago
    If the band signed with someone to help produce the album you're buying, they probably owe a cut to cover the costs of recording, mixing, cutting/pressing, releasing that album.
• smcg 7mo ago
  Merch is the most profitable thing for the band. They can mark it up however much they want. $35 tee shirts are very profitable.
• Imustaskforhelp 7mo ago
  > I.e. I want to support the band, but feel like only a fraction of the money spent on merch goes to the target. Same with websites that have mugs and such. I don't want another mug, I don't want to pay 5.99 for shipping, I don't need to support the white box oem mug manufacturer. I know some musicians are using Patreon but patreon takes a cut as well. Now Although I don't like github but one of the last things that I like about github is that github sponsorships don't charge anything extra than the costs it would have itself and you get chargeback protection. Would there be a genuine interest in using Github for sponsorships by Musicians, are there any real world musicians* who are doing that?
• pc86 7mo ago
  It's the only thing that works at scale. If you want to support them you're more than welcome to message them and ask for their Venmo, or reach out to their agent (if they have one) or them directly and ask who to make the check out to. That just doesn't work at scale.
• dylan604 7mo ago
  > I want to support the band, but feel like only a fraction of the money spent on merch goes to the target. Maybe you don't have any friends that are in a band, but if it's the band members or friends of the band selling the merch, they are getting 100% of the profit. They design the shirts, they pay for the printing of the shirts, they then sell the shirts directly with their own hands. There's no middleman taking cuts. Now, if you're buying their merch from some 3rd party website, that site probably takes a cut. Some bands selling merch on their own website could still be coming directly from the band if one of them, or again a friend, sets up the site with their own accounts using square/stripe/etc and deals with the fulfillment themselves they are minimizing cuts as well.
  • wongarsu 7mo ago
    I guess they are technically not middle men because they sit one the start of the value chain, but the company making the t-shirts, the one selling it and the one printing on it are still making good profits. On top of the actual costs of making those printed t-shirts. I imagine it's not hugely expensive at the volumes bands need, somewhere from $3-10 per t-shirt depending on quality, and maybe double that for hoodies? And if you are buying online shipping and handling, which is another $5-10 that I'm paying and isn't going to the artist. Not a huge deal. But if you don't care about the physical product and just want the band to have some money that's still a good bit of inefficiency
    • dmm10 7mo ago
      Slight correction: I just received an advertising blow-in from Ollie's listing Hanes and other brand women's tees for $1.99 each. That's for short sleeve, long sleeve or tank top in various colors. The indicated competition is stated to sell them for $2.49. Not that this is RETAIl pricing in the U.S.A.. I'm guessing wholesale will be even less.
    • dylan604 7mo ago
      well, now you're getting needlessly pedantic in a way that just makes me wonder why would someone do that. seriously, nobody expects that a band is weaving fabric by hand to cut into patterns to sew into shirts. everyone here understands that you have to buy the shirts at your expense to sale at a mark up that earns profit. what a ridiculous thing to argue